


First Date

by TheWalkingDebt



Series: T7S Drabbles [2]
Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Confusion, Cute, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Hyde being Hyde, Hyde being cute, Interviews, Romance, Teen Romance, first date mixup, shipper Donna, shipper Eric, unwittingly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-26 00:11:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14988530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalkingDebt/pseuds/TheWalkingDebt
Summary: Eric finds an old tape in the attic. It reveals a little about our favorite couple.





	First Date

_ “How was your first date?” _

“Our first date?” Hyde repeated the question, wrinkling his nose, as if it were a distasteful subject. His thumb rubbed the back of Jackie’s, though, proving otherwise. Their hands were tangled between their bodies, hanging beside each bar stool.

“Oh it was beautiful,” Jackie sighed, the typical romantic, turning everything into golden dust and fairy tales. It wasn’t something Hyde found attractive, not even a little adorable, nope. ...She had something in her teeth, alright, that’s what he was staring at, okay? Shut up.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Hyde snorted, finally facing the camera again with a dispassionate expression. “More like awkward.”

Jackie shot him a pouty glare, “Shut up, you’re ruining it. I thought it was perfect.” Even with the thirty minutes of silence, they were the best silent minutes of her life. His jacket heavy on her shoulders, his arm wrapped around her to keep her warm (alright, so she had put it there, but he didn't move it!), and the stars overhead? It was by and far a better date than any of Michael's, and this from a guy who supposedly didn't care and didn't have feelings. Well she sure proved him wrong about that.

Hyde frowned back, thinking on the faded memory, “Coulda been better. Didn’t end so great, after all.”

Jackie started to speak, ( _"Well, did you feel something?" "...No."_ ) faltered, then agreed with a small sigh, “It was your fault, you know. Coulda just said how you felt, then I would’ve told the truth too.”

“How could I?” his eyebrows rose high above his sunglasses, but he remembered the prickling that came over his skin when he saw her back with Kelso. Even after all he had done, changed, for her. Not that she had truly understood at the time. He couldn’t blame her; she had only barely started to peel back the layers of Steven J. Hyde, after all. Even Eric didn’t have all the pieces yet. “You might as well have still been with Kelso, you were so obviously hung up over him.”

“What?” Jackie exclaimed, stunned by his words. “I wasn’t!”

“Yes you were, you were sobbing over him all night,” Hyde rolled his eyes, pretending that part of the memory didn’t sting at least a little. More so now than it had then. He could’ve had her to himself so long ago, and he hadn’t tried. Pride, and more, came in between first. Maybe it was for the best. They both had a lot of growing up to do separately before coming together.

They still had growing up to do.

"Besides, the whole thing was planned just to make him jealous. You went running right back to him the second I took Pam Macy off his hands..."

“Steven?” Jackie realized something with a heart flutter, putting her hand to her chest, big eyes dancing with glee. “Are you talking about  _ prom  _ night?”

_...Was she  _ not _ talking about prom night? _

“Yeah, what…?” Steven felt his cheeks heat up, as much as he didn’t want them to. He shifted uncomfortably on his chair. “What were  _ you  _ talking about?”

“Veteran’s Day!” her grin spread ear to ear with delight. “Aw, you thought prom was our first date! That’s so…!"

“Don’t you dare!” he growled, refusing to look her in the eyes, but not moving his gaze from her face. Mostly to keep his flush hidden from the camera's view and any possible viewers. She hadn’t meant prom? Well he supposed… after all… they had a few ‘first’ dates.  But prom had felt… well technically it was their first-first date. Wasn’t it? Even if he had gone and slept with that slut Pam Macy, even if Jackie had gone running back to Kelso immediately, even if he realized there - in between Pam’s legs - that he was still thinking about Jackie’s lavender dress and lavender smell. Not to mention the way she felt so small and secure in his arms, like he was meant to be holding her, dancing with her, as ridiculous as it seemed.

Even if he had gone home and had a vivid dream about ending prom with Jackie, and not a two-cent whore in the backseat of Mr. Burkhart’s Lincoln Continental.

The car even _smelled_ like Jackie. Whether that made the sex better or worse wasn't entirely clear anymore, but he had a feeling he could've done better if Jackie had been the girl beneath him. Rather than the STD factory of their school. At least, once Laurie Forman had graduated.

The young girl couldn't hold back forever, though, and it came out with a high-pitched squeak. “Oh, my Puddin' Pop! You're so _sweet_!” she finished with a broad grin and giggles falling off her lips, even as she stifled them with one hand. Her eyes were bright as fairy lights, all twinkly and gorgeous.

“Alright, that’s enough of this,” he grunted, jumping down from his seat and throwing his chick over one shoulder. “Forman, destroy this tape or I’m killing you.” He pointed at the camera, his young face twisted in a scowl everyone knew was just a mask, before storming off. Jackie was throwing a fit on his back, but her laughter was loud and carefree. Youthful exuberance of a time long past.

She still laughed like that sometimes, when Hyde surprised her with hidden romantic gestures, not that the man would ever admit to doing them. 

Eric glanced at Donna, both reviewing the old video with crinkled eyes and laughing lips. He had found it buried in an old recording device up in the attic, recalling a brief fling with video documenting, wringing bad skits and tense interviews from his obnoxious and complaintive friends. This one had only happened thanks to a mixture of some dirt Eric happened to find on Hyde and Jackie’s incessant pushing. She loved talking about them, their relationship, and her life in general. It was thanks to her needling that Hyde had even done it at all, reminding him it’d be a good record for the future.

It certainly would be.

“Think we should send this to them?” he waggled the old VHS tape amusedly.

“The kids would get a kick out of it,” Donna agreed, thinking of Robbie and Anna's faces when they saw their parents as teenagers. Robbie would be horrified to discover his dad had a romantic side; Anna would love it, though.

“Can you imagine Hyde’s face?” Eric chuckled, mocking his friend’s gruff voice, “ _ Man, Jackie, now the anklebiters are gonna think I have  _ feelings .”

“ _ Oh no, Puddin' Pop, they live with you, _ ” Donna mimicked Jackie with high-pitched tones and girlish giggle. “ _ They know better. _ ”

Two weeks after they sent the tape, and two days after Jackie forced the kids down to watch it, Eric received an unsigned letter in the mail. (Although, it did have a return address stamped on the envelope, so the signature would have been pointless, really.)

_ I’m going to kill you, Forman. _


End file.
